Various subterranean formations contain hydrocarbons in fluid form which can be produced to a surface location for collection. Generally, a wellbore is drilled, and a production completion is moved downhole to facilitate production of desired fluids from the surrounding formation. Many of the formation fluids, however, contain particulates, e.g., sand, that can wear or otherwise detrimentally impact both downhole and surface components.
Gravel packing techniques, including frac packing procedures, are often used to control sand. In typical gravel packing operations, a slurry of gravel carried in a transport fluid is pumped into a well annulus between a sand screen and the surrounding casing or open wellbore. The deposited gravel is dehydrated (i.e., the transport fluid is removed), and the remaining gravel facilitates blocking of sand or other particulates that would otherwise flow with formation fluids into the production equipment.
In some gravel packing operations, difficulty arises in obtaining uniform distribution of gravel throughout the desired gravel pack region. For example, a poor distribution of gravel can result from premature loss of transport fluid, which causes the creation of bridges that can prevent or reduce further distribution of gravel past the bridge. Also, certain manmade isolation devices, such as packers, can present barriers to distribution of the gravel slurry. Shunt tubes have been used to bypass bridges and/or manmade isolation devices to ensure complete gravel packing (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,407,007).
Traditionally, the method to attach hardware, such as the aforementioned shunt tubes, to oilfield sand screen tubulars (and other downhole equipment) involved welding. Unfortunately, welding often introduces stress into the tubulars that can cause defects (for example corrosion, corrosion cracking, and surface cracks) that can result in undesirable consequences, including, but not limited to failure of the tubular. Various post-welding procedures are available to minimize undesirable consequences (e.g., post-weld heat treatment to homogenize the metals or examination using dye penetrant to identify surface defects). However, these treatments can be expensive and time consuming and cause administrative hassles and only mitigate the risk of defects caused by welding rather than eliminate the risks.
Thus, for at least these reasons, it may be desirable to eliminate or reduce the welding necessary to attach hardware to tubulars or downhole equipment.